sorry for the delay, but as skippy requested:
Guatemala was freaking amazing.
I just - maybe my expectations were too low. Maybe it's that this was my first vacation in exactly two years. But no, maybe it's just that Guatemala is a stupendous place, and any of you with "un poquito" of Spanish should go at the first opportunity. It's nearby! It's cheap! (Like, $25 for a night's sleep!)
We were there for three full days (plus a late night flying in and early morning flying out). In those three days, we (chronologically):
- wandered through the ruins of the 1700s capital of Antigua;
- wandered through the streets of the non-ruined parts of Antigua;
- had the best ice cream of my life (think chocolate gelato, but with a little too much Kahlua);
- took a Guatemalan cooking class in Spanish and made enough food (pepian, chilaquiles but frying veggies rather than tortillas, tortillas from scratch, rice, and a badass dessert) to donate the leftovers to a couple random strangers;
- hung out with random strangers and ex-pats at a wine bar with one communal table;
- got tons of travel tips from the wine server, who was pouring for himself too;
- saw a museum of people writing thank-you cards to saints for the miracles they received (e.g. "thanks for the miracle of I had surgery and didn't die");
- had a traditional lunch in the secret backroom of a convenience store where old ladies served us stew from pots;
- dropped by a chocolate museum to taste chocolate liqueur, chocolate tea, and a billion other kinds of chocolate;
- climbed a darn active volcano and toasted marshmallows over the freaking lava;
- openly made fun of this sissy girl from LA who was too out-of-shape to climb the volcano and hired a "taxi" (traditional native word meaning "horse");
- met a dude who runs the gift shop on the lava field, who was there for the eruption two weeks before we got there and for the earthquake two hours before we got there;
- tried three local beers: Moza (pretty good bock), Gallo Negro (okay black lager), Gallo Red (a surprisingly delicious red lager);
- boated across a massive lake that was surrounded by extinct volcanoes;
- had the worst mojitos of our life after the waitress "found somebody who knows what mojitos are" and then delivered the liquor/mint without any mixer - seriously, mojito shots;
- heard locals speaking tribal languages instead of Spanish and stumbled out of the tourist zone and into the real markets;
- had lunch in a cafe where the other table was all cops and the floor was for stray dogs to roll around on;
- had easily the best tamale of my life, wrapped in a banana leaf;
- got a surprise fireworks show on the last night as we stood on the hostel roof; and
- finished the trip off with literally one of the five best meals of my life, at a French bistro that seated 30 with the kitchen in the dining room.
Okay, another thing that impressed me? The strangers. We made so many great friends. The guy at our hostel was a boon and always wanted us happy; the tour guide who led us up the volcano (Pacaya) was hilarious; all the Americans we met were the best kinds of Americans; the cooking school guy arranged, without even asking us, for the class to be just us and the teacher, and then customized the menu around our favorite foods. Oh, and Pablo, the wine bar server who also works as a tour guide at the chocolate museum, recommended places to us that ultimately made our vacation. So much so that my first recommendation of "what to do in Antigua" is "meet Pablo." Everyone had great stories. Every bar played hilarious salsa covers of classic rock. (You don't know what you're missing. We're talking Red Hot Chili Peppers, but salsa.)
I could go back for a month. I could go back twice. I could also keep talking and talking. I'll end with an anecdote. Our shuttle bus to the airport stopped at another hostel. A girl got in the van, saying goodbye to two friends. They had just met staying there, they were from three different countries (France, Belgium, Germany), and they were new best friends. As the van pulled away she said to them, "See you in July!" All three of them were sobbing. Just, loudly, openly in tears. My room is getting dusty thinking about it.
Point being: that country is freaking magic.
